The Department of Communicative Disorders offers a graduate program leading to the Master of Science degree in speech-language pathology. The program is accredited by the Council on Academic Accreditation through the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
Programs
The program combines coursework, observation, and practicum to familiarize students with communicative disorders and to develop their skills in assessment and rehabilitation. Most students with undergraduate degrees in communicative disorders will complete the degree requirements in five semesters of full-time study. Students who complete the master's degree will also have met the academic and practicum requirements for the Certificate of Clinical Competence from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and for a license from the state of Alabama. These credentials enable graduates to be employed in clinical settings as well as in the public schools of Alabama and many other states, depending upon the certification requirements of those states.
Practicum sites include UA's Speech and Hearing Center, public schools, DCH Regional Medical Center, University Medical Center, West Alabama Rehabilitation Center, Bryce Hospital, RISE Program, VA Medical Centers in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, and other sites in the Birmingham area. Certified and/or licensed professionals supervise at all sites.
Faculty
Chair
- Dr. Memorie Gosa
Clinic Director
- Dr. JoAnne Payne
Coordinator, Audiological Services
- Dr. Christy Albea
Professor
- Dr. Marcia Hay-McCutcheon
Associate professors
- Dr. Angela Barber
- Dr. Anthony Buhr
- Dr. Memorie Gosa
- Dr. Evie Malaia
Assistant professors
- Dr. Luca Campanelli
- Dr. Spyridoula Cheimariou
- Dr. Paul Reed
- Dr. Hyunjoo Yoo
Instructor
- Dr. Laura Moss
Clinical Educators
- Mrs. Jennifer Baggett
- Mrs. Mary Bryan
- Mrs. Candace Cook
- Mrs. Kayce Hinton
- Mrs. Amanda Mennen
- Mrs. Mary Ray-Allen
- Mrs. Sara Shirley
- Mrs. DeLaine Stricklin
Audiologist
- Dr. Emma Brothers
Graduate Research Professor Emeritus
- Dr. Charles Formby
Courses
Students may not receive credit at both the 400 and 500 levels for courses of equivalent content. Graduate students enrolled in 500-level courses that are also offered at the 400 level will be expected to perform extra work of an appropriate nature. Graduate credit will not be granted at the 400 level.
This course covers the study of research methods for use in communicative disorders and related disciplines. This includes an emphasis on evaluation of experimental design for clinical research and critical reading of published research.
Language is a system of symbols that we use to communicate. The power of this system enables us to share the contents of our minds with other people who share that language. The evolution of language has profoundly shaped the lives of human beings, enabling our species to transmit knowledge from one generation to the next. This accumulated knowledge over time and space has allowed humans to proliferate as a species. New words are added to a language as new ideas emerge. The psychology of language is the study of the processes by which we as human beings generate grammatical sequences of linguistic symbols for comprehension by the listener.